Friday, 28 June 2013

Tickets for the Edinburgh Book Festival go on sale this morning at 8:30am and can be booked here. There are a wide range of crime fiction events taking place as well. They are as follows :-Saturday 10 August 6:30pm - 7:30pmAlexander McCall SmithMeet Scotland's Favourite Storyteller

Thursday, 27 June 2013

Anya
Lipska, has been selected by Val McDermid to appear on her New Blood Panel at
this year's Theakstons Crime Festival in Harrogate
and to celebrate the occasion, The Friday Project is offering the chance to win
a pair of tickets to the event.

The
pair of tickets can be sent anywhere in the UK. They will allow entry for two people to the New Blood Panel,
taking place at The Old Swan Hotel, Harrogate,
at 12 noon on Saturday 20 July 2013 - for full details of the panel and other
festival events click here http://harrogateinternationalfestivals.com/crime/events/

The
prize does not include travel, accommodation or other expenses that the winners
incur in attending the festival.Answers
to the competition should be sent to shotscomp@yahoo.co.uk.

Sunday, 23 June 2013

Today’s guest blog is by James Oswald. His novel Natural
Causes has been chosen as a Richard and Judy Summer Read. His next book The Book of Souls is due to be published on July 4th
2013. When he is not writing James is
busy looking after his farm where he rears sheep and cattle.

I wrote Natural Causes, the first book in the Inspector McLean series, back
in 2005. At the time, I was not a huge
fan of crime fiction simply because I had not read much. Too many books of all genres, too little time. My good friend Stuart MacBride had recently
switched from writing fantasy to crime, with great success, and he suggested I
do the same. I usually do what Stuart
tells me, so thought I’d give it a go.

I am lazy at heart, so dug up a character
I had created for a comic script back in the early nineties. McLean has been in quite a few of my stories
as a part of the supporting cast down the years; I felt now he deserved centre
stage. My comic’s background perhaps
explains why I kept the subtle supernatural overtones to the story, too. I was looking for a unique selling point, as
the marketeers would have it, but I also felt safer on fantasy ground. Research has never been my strong point, and
learning all about the machinations of the Scottish Police is hard work.

Natural
Causes started life as a
short story, published first on my blog and then by Spinetingler Magazine. When I told Spinetingler editor Sandra Ruttan
I was turning it into a novel, she suggested I enter it into the CWA Debut
Dagger. It is a measure of my crime
fiction naiveté that I had never heard of the CWA by then! To my delight and surprise, it was
short-listed for the 2007 prize, although it did not win. I’d hoped the exposure would get publishers
interested, even more so when the sequel, The
Book of Souls was short-listed the following year, but back then no-one was
too keen on the blending of genres.
There is no market for this kind of book was the all-too frequent
response.

Fast-forward to 2011. I had taken over the family farm, written the
opening to a couple

more books but not been able to finish either. I had no agent, nothing out there being
looked at. I was pretty much ready to
give up on the dream of being published altogether. Then a chance conversation with Al Guthrie
alerted me to the possibilities of ebooks.
I had had a go at the old-fashioned kind of self-publishing years
earlier, and even offered some of my fantasy stories for sale as pdf downloads
back before ereaders existed. This new
world of publishing sounded interesting, though, and I had two crime novels
pretty much ready to go. As long as I
could keep costs down, it could not hurt to put them out as ebooks.

My marketing strategy was very simple:
give away Natural Causes and hope
people liked it enough to buy The Book of
Souls. I hoped to shift 1000 copies
of both books combined in the first year.
The only money I spent was on professionally designed covers from the
wonderful JT Lindroos.

Natural
Causes came out in
February 2012. Initially it was priced
at 99p, and shifted one or two copies a week.
I tweeted a bit about it, set up a facebook page, but otherwise did
nothing. Then in early May, the price
dropped to zero on Amazon and the book instantly shot to the top of the Kindle
free charts. That month it was
downloaded just shy of 50,000 times in the UK, 15,000 in the US. I did nothing to promote this, much to the
irritation of all the people who have subsequently asked me how I did it.

There was much talk about ebooks at the
2012 Harrogate Crime Writing Festival, and quite a few editors were interested
in my story. I bumped into Juliet
Mushens, whom I had met a few years before when she was an agent’s assistant. That time the agent she was assisting had
turned down Natural Causes and the
chance to represent me, but Juliet was still keen on the book and, an agent in
her own right now, asked to see it again.
I signed with her just the week before the Frankfurt Book Fair - which
turned out to be perfect timing. By then
Kindle sales of Natural Causes and The Book of Souls were at their peak and
there was a definite buzz about the books.
In the UK, the series went to a five-way auction, eventually won by
Michael Joseph. German, Canadian,
Italian, Brazilian, Serbian and Czech rights were snapped up in what, for me,
was a crazy; pinch me, dream-come-true week.
I still sometimes wonder whether it is all really happening.

The print edition of Natural Causes comes out on May 9th, The Book of Souls on July 4th.
I have handed in the manuscript for book three, The Hangman’s Song, and that will be published in 2014. Back in 1993, I had my first ever piece of
writing published for money - a script in 2000AD comic. That was when I decided I wanted to be a
writer. They say it takes ten years to
become an overnight success. Well, in my
case it has been twenty. I think it has
been worth the wait.

-----

“Natural Causes” is the first novel from James Oswald in the “Detective
Inspector McLean” series. A young girl’s
mutilated body is discovered in a sealed room.
Her remains are carefully arranged, in what seems to have been a cruel
and macabre ritual, which appears to have taken place over 60 years ago. For newly appointed Edinburgh Detective
Inspector Tony McLean this baffling cold case ought to be a low priority – but
he is haunted by the young victim and her grisly death. Meanwhile, the city is horrified by a series
of bloody killings. Deaths for which
there appears to be neither rhyme nor reason, and which leave Edinburgh’s
police at a loss. McLean is convinced
that these deaths are somehow connected to the terrible ceremonial killing of
the girl, all those years ago. It is an
irrational, almost supernatural theory. And
one which will lead McLean closer to the heart of a terrifying and ancient
evil…

The Body of Souls is the second book in the Detective Inspector
McLean series. Every year for ten years,
a young woman's body was found in Edinburgh at Christmas time: naked, throat
slit, body washed clean. Ten years, ten
women. The final victim, Kirsty Summers,
was Detective Constable Tony McLean's fiancée. However, the Christmas Killer made a mistake. In a cellar under a shop, McLean found a
torture chamber and put an end to the brutal killing spree. Twelve years later, and a fellow prisoner has
just murdered the incarcerated Christmas Killer. Nevertheless, with the arrival of the festive
season comes a body. A young woman:
naked, washed, her throat cut. Is this a
copycat killer? Was the wrong man behind
bars all this time? On the other hand,
is there a more sinister, frightening explanation? McLean must revisit the most disturbing case
of his life and discover what he missed before the killer strikes again . . .

More information about James Oswald can be found on his website or you can follow him on Facebook or Twitter @sirBenfro

Saturday, 22 June 2013

Arrow
is reissuing classic cult thriller The Silence of the Lambs for its 25th
anniversary.

The
novel will have a gold foil design and a new introduction from author Thomas
Harris, which editorial assistant Tim Vanderpump said, “gives some background to the earliest origins of Thomas’ most famous
creation. It’s a real privilege to
publish, as Thomas has only written five books in nearly 40 years, and has
given barely any interviews or talked publicly about his work.”

The Silence of the Lambs, which has sold more than 11 million copies
worldwide, is published on 1st August (£7.99).

Friday, 21 June 2013

Blackwells Charing Cross Road will be hosting what promises to be a lively
balloon debate to figure out who is the best fictional detective.

They
will be joined by Nicola Upson, author of a brilliant series of crime
novels featuring Josephine Tey (starting with An Expert in
Murder), who will argue that Tey’s own creation, Alan Grant, should win
the title.Inspector Alan Grant starred
in 5 of Tey’s detective books, the most famous of which was The Daughter
of Time where he solves the murder of the Princes in the Tower from his
bed while recovering from a broken leg.

Sara Sheridan will be arguing on behalf of Precious Ramotswe, star
of Alexander McCall Smith’s No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.Having written 2 crime novels starring
ex-World War 2 spy Mirabelle Bevan (Brighton Belle and London Calling),
Sheridan is well placed to argue for the excellence of another female
detective.

Barry Forshaw, an expert on crime fiction and author of British Crime
Film and Nordic Noir, will argue that Sherlock Holmes is
the greatest of the great detectives.With
his cerebral skill and ability to physically transform himself, as well as come
back to the dead, will Holmes be declared the winner?

The final member of the panel will be Emelyne Godfrey who has written
extensively on Masculinity and Femininity and Crime in
Victorian London.She will be arguing in
favour of adventurous Judith Lee.Lee
was the female equivalent of Sherlock Holmes and starred in a series of books
by Richard Marsh, who made her feisty, independent, and able to defend
herself using martial arts.

Will it be a battle of the sexes and who will win? You will decide!

Tickets are free, but please reserve a place for the event by
emailing events.london@blackwell.co.uk.

Best-selling
author Stephen King returns with a breathtaking tale of love – and loss – set
in a 1970s North Carolina
amusement park.

Celebrating
the release of this bittersweet coming-of-age novel, Titan Books and Hard Case
Crime are teaming up with a series of digital partners to host competitions to
win a free copies of Joyland and a limited run of EXCLUSIVE JOYLAND canvas
prints of Glen Orbik’s cover painting.

Who
dares enter the world of JOYLAND to win these unique prizes?

Playing
the game is simple.

To be
entered into todays draw to win AN EXCLUSIVE COVER ART CANVAS PRINT, just copy
and paste the correct statement to a tweet @titanbooks

To a carny, a SHOUT is a promotional flyer for a
park…I think. Find out in Stephen King’s #JOYLAND

To a carny, a SHOUT is a secret call alerting another carny
to danger…I think. Find out in Stephen King’s #JOYLAND

Follow the carnival as it tours across websites… Each
website will post a definition of carny “Talk” or Stephen King trivia everyday
for three weeks.

The
more unique carny terms and Stephen King facts that you share with the world,
the more likely that you are to win books or other prizes. For full details of stops on the tour please
visit titanbooks.com/joylandblogtour

Wednesday, 19 June 2013

According to the Bookseller,
Selina Walker has bought three crime novels from author and journalist Tony
Parsons. The first novel, titled The Murder Bag, kicks off a crime series
featuring detective and single parent Max Wolfe. In The
Murder Bag, Wolfe - father to a five-year-old girl - is called in to
investigate a nasty killing, which leads him from the backstreets of London's
West End to the corridors of power in Westminster.

Congratulations also go to Paul
Finch who has also signed a five-book deal with Avon. According to the Bookseller,
his second book Sacrifice has already
had over 10,000 pre-orders in e-book format ahead of its summer release.

If you have somehow managed to
miss the results of the awards given at Crimefest then they are as follows-

Sounds of Crime: Standing In Another Man's Grave by Ian
Rankin; Read by James MacPherson (Orion Audio)

The CWA Non-Fiction Dagger:Midnight in Peking by Paul French
(Penguin Viking)The Boy in the River by Richard
Hoskins (Pan Macmillan)Against a Tide of Evil by Mukesh
Kapila, with Damien Lewis (Mainstream)A Fine Day for a Hanging by Carol Ann
Lee (Mainstream)Injustice by Clive Stafford Smith
(Random House)Murder at Wrotham Hill by Diana
Souhami (Quercus)

The CWA Debut Dagger:The Assassin’s Keeper by Aine
Oomhnaill (Ireland)Call Time by Finn Clarke (UK)TAG by Sue Dawes (UK) Working in Unison by Alex Sweeney
(UK), Lesson Plan for Murder by Marie
Hannan-Mandel (USA)Honour or Justice by Ron Puckering
(UK) Torment by David Evans (UK) When the Bow Breaks by Jayne Barnard
(Canada)Fighting Darkness: The KillerTrail by D.B. Carew (Canada)Born in a Burial Gown by Mike Craven
(UK)The Journeyman by Emma Melville (UK)A Cure for All Evils by Joanna Dodd
(UK)

The winners will be announced during on July 15 in London. Also included on
July 15 will be the presentation, to Lee Child, of this year’s Diamond Dagger
and the announcement of CWA’s Gold, Steel, and John Creasey Daggers Nominees.

Congratulations also go to Liza Marklund whose novel Last Will won the inaugural
Petrona Award for Scandinavian Crime Novel of the year. The winner was announced by Barry Forshaw.

Over in the Guardian the question
has been asked why Nordic detective stories / films are so successful. Lots of interesting responses. In addition, there is an interesting article
on whether crime fiction is the new punk.

Very good article
in the independent on Nordicana that took place over the weekend (15 & 16
June 2013).

Madrid is also due to host their sixth
crime fiction festival. The festival is
due to take place between 17 to 27 October 2013 and France is due to be the
guest country. Tributes will be given to
Georges Simenon and his protagonist Maigret.
More information can be found here
(in Spanish)

For those of you that can’t get
enough of Icelandic crime fiction will be pleased to note that Iceland are due
to host their first festival of crime fiction.
Iceland Noir is due to be held
at the Nordic Cultural Centre, Reykjavik on Saturday 23rd November
2013 and Sunday 24th November 2013.
Amongst the well-known authors due to attend include Anne Cleeves, Yrsa
Sigurdardóttir, John Curran and Quentin Bates.

Congratulations also go to Jorn
Lier Horst whose novel The Hunting Dogs
recently won the Norwegian Glass Key for the best Scandinavian crime
novel. The Hunting Dogs is due to be published in the Spring of 2014. Jorn Lier Horst is
also due to attend the first Iceland Noir crime festival.

In the Independent, Helen Brown talks to
Louise Doughty about her psychological thriller. Apple
Tree Yard, which is about a successful, professional woman whose life, is
upended by an affair.

The trailer for the new Wolverine
film has been released and can be seen below.

Congratulations also go to Peter
Robinson. ITV have commissioned a third
DCI Banks series. According to the Independent, the show will dedicate
two episodes each to three stories based on the books and are called Wednesday’s Child, Piece Of My Heart and Bad
Boy. Information from ITV can be
found here.

Sad news
for all of us that are waiting and looking forward to the sequel to Sin City – Sin City: A Dame to Kill For instead of it being released in
October this year, it looks as if it will not be seen now until August 2014. Still, it looks as if it will be worth
waiting for with

Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Bruce Willis and Rosario Dawson
all reprise roles, while Josh Brolin, Eva Green, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Dennis
Haysbert, Jeremy Piven, Ray Liotta, Juno Temple and Stacy Keach are the new
recruits. More information can
also be found here
and here.

Extremely sad news to hear that author Vince Flynn has passed
away. He was suffering from long-term prostrate
cancer. According to CBS
Minnesota, he died on Wednesday morning.
Vince was the author of 15 novels centred on the character of
Mitch Rapp, an undercover CIA agent.
More information can be found here.

Also recently and
rather sadly, Joan Parker the widow of Robert B Parker passed away (Hat tip to
Mystery Fanfare for the news). More
information can be found here
and here.

The 2013 Nero
Award finalists have been announced. The
finalists are –

Antiques Disposal
by Barbara AllanTruth of All Things by Kieran ShieldsBurning Midnight by Loren D. EstlemanDead Anyway by Chris Knopf

The Nero Award is presented each
year to an author for the best mystery written in the tradition of Rex Stout’s
Nero Wolfe stories. It is presented at
the Black Orchid Banquet, traditionally held on the first Saturday in December
in New York City. The Nero Award celebrates
literary excellence in the mystery genre. More information can be found here.

The Telegraph’s film critic
Robbie Collin has chosen his 10 best thriller films of all time. The list can be found here. Pleased to see The Third Man on the list along with Taxi Driver and Silence of
the Lambs.

Fans of Luther and Idris Elba will be pleased to know that he will be back
on our screens shortly. Elba will star in four new 60-minute episodes,
alongside Warren Brown and Ruth Wilson. The
first instalment of series three will feature John Luther (Elba) tackling a
"twisted fetishist", who appears to be a copycat killer of an
unsolved case from the '80s.

Also according to FirstShowing.net
Elba is due to join Javier Bardem, Sean Penn and Ray Winstone in the thriller The Gunman. The
Gunman is based on the novel Prone
Gunman by French author Jean-Patrick Manchette.

To celebrate playing Hercule Poirot for twenty-five years,
David Suchet gives an fascinating interview in the Scotsman.

According to TheHollywood Reporter Channel 5 have
picked up Stephen King’s Under the Dome. It is due to be shown on Channel 5 in the
fall.

According to the Radio Times, the TV series of Fargo which is based on the Coen brother's 1996 film is due to be filmed in Canada. The series will be a 10 episode series and is due to be released in 2014.

If you are like me and are looking forward to the new Vin
Diesel Riddick film then you will be
pleased to see that a trailer has been released.
The trailer can be seen below –

Riddick: Rule The Dark is due to be released on September 6 2013.

According to Screenrant,
Morgan Freeman is in talks to star in Luc Besson’s film Lucy which also stars Scarlett Johansson.

According to the BBC
an all-star cast has been confirmed for the adaptation of Death Comes to Pemberley by P D James. The cast includes Jenna
Coleman, James Fleet, Penelope Keith, James Norton and Trevor Eve to name a
few.

Vanessa Redgrave and Olivia
Colman are set to star in The Thirteenth
Tale by Helen Setterfield. The 90 minute drama will be shown on BBC Two and
is a haunting psychological mystery set in the modern day, with poignant
flashbacks starting in 1940. More
information can be found here. Filming started in June and it is due to be
shown later on this year.

BBC
Four have acquired Belgian thriller Salamander. Everyone has secrets. But
these can bring down a nation. In a private Brussels bank, 66 safe-deposit
boxes are raided. The owner of the bank wants to keep the thefts under wraps
but police inspector Paul Gerardi catches wind of the affair. With his
incorruptible, old-school morals and devil-may-care attitude, Gerardi throws
himself into the investigation, and when some of the key players are murdered,
commit suicide or vanish, soon realises just how big the case is. Gerardi discovers that the victims are
members of a secret organisation called Salamander, made up of the country's
industrial, financial, judicial and political elite, and the safe-deposit boxes
contained their most intimate secrets - secrets that could bring down the
nation. As he becomes the target of both the criminals and the authorities,
Gerardi must quickly find out what their agenda is. And who is behind the
thefts... Salamander will be shown as
12 x 60 minute drama series.

Various dramas to look out for include Top of the Lake which is due to be shown on BBC Two and is a six part drama about a detective obsessively investigating the disappearance of a twelve year-old pregnant girl. Quirke which is based on the book by Benjamin Black is a three part series which takes us back to the 1950s Dublin. Quirke, played by Gabriel Byrne, is the chief pathologist of the
city morgue. His attempts to solve
sudden deaths take him from smokey damp alleys and whiskey bars to elegant
moneyed houses.Quirke is due to
be shown on BBC One. Mark Gatiss is due to adapt The Tractate Middoth,
anMR
Jamesghost
story for Christmas. The Tractate Middoth is
due to be shown on BBC
Two.